The present invention relates generally to the structuring of data to be stored in a program for processing protocols, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for structuring abstract syntax to be used as protocols for the presentation and application layers of the ISO (International Organization and Standardization) Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) seven-layer network model according to the ISO 8824 "Specification of Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1)".
In conventional computer networks, one signal processing method involves analyzing the data structure of a received signal by utilizing the relatively simple structure of syntax. If this method is adopted for processing signals according to the ISO/8824/ASN.1 specification, the program for processing the protocols would become prohibitively complex for implementation. Another processing method involves storing the ASN.1 notation as a string of characters in a program and scanning the strings to analyze the data structure of a signal. If the latter is adopted, however, the scanning process must be performed at each end of an on-line network and would, therefore, prohibitively increase the overhead of a communication.